X

X is a work by young Latvian-American artist Viktor Timofeev that seizes on the power of contrasts. Suprisingly its industrial aesthetic sits in comfortable harmony with the scenic natural backdrop of the West Sussex countryside at Cass Sculpture Foundation. The form of X is a meshing of geometric archetypes; the square, the cube and the cross. The latter of these forms disrupts the former, by cutting across the surface and employing small variations in size. With its perforated, open-top structure and incised diagonals X is only perceptible when all four walls are seen simultaneously. The interior of polished mirror steel provides a direct contrast to the rusty corten steel exterior, resulting in a balance of extremes rather than a state of decay. The only way inside of this structure demands that you enter diagonally, squeezing in between the interlocking “teeth” which are made by the rectangular perforations. This journey inwards presents one with a conflict of feeling, at once both menacing and inviting. Once inside, a mirrored panorama surrounds the viewer, bringing the outside in and providing no overhead shelter. Timofeev calls X an attempt at a metal-sanctuary and cites his profound experience at Aldo Rossi’s San Cataldo cemetery in Modena as particularly influential.

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About The Artist

Timofeev’s work straddles themes of fictional worlds and carries tropes of utopias and dystopias. X marks Timofeev’s first venture into fabricated sculpture, in which he experiments with the construction of place. Calling it an attempt at a 'metal-sanctuary', Timofeev sees X as somewhere between a model and a pavilion, and where opposites such as enclosed and open, inside and outside, cold and warm confer. In 2011, Timofeev was the second recipient of the Adolf Loos Preis, Van den Valentyn Foundation, Cologne. Topophilia was published by Strzelecki Books, Cologne in 2012.